Geodesy at K-band with the European VLBI Network

Maria Eugenia Gomez (1) , Patrick Charlot (1) , Robert Campbell (2) , Mark Kettenis (2) , Aard Keimpema (2)

1 M2A 2019
2 Joint institute for VLBI-ERIC, Dwingeloo, The Netherlands

The paper presents the current status of adding geodetic capabilities to the European VLBI Network (EVN) software correlator at JIVE (SFXC), which is accomplished as part of the JUMPING JIVE project. Even though the EVN is not a geodetic array, there are many reasons why accurate radio telescope positions are desirable, including frequent observations using the phase-referencing technique to detect weak radio sources. Several changes were made at the SFXC so that the correlator can successfully correlate geodetic experiments. Detailed testing using data from the International VLBI Service for geodesy and astrometry (IVS) was performed to check the implementation. Additionally, a non-standard geodetic VLBI experiment was carried out at K-band (22 GHz) in June 2018 using 14 radio telescopes from the EVN. The purpose of this experiment was to determine accurate geodetic positions for those EVN telescopes that do not possess S/X receivers and hence do not participate in regular experiments organized by the IVS.The experiment was fully correlated with SFXC and exported into Mk4 format so that it can be further processed with standard geodesy software packages. That experiment is used as another means to demonstrate the full geodetic capabilities of the JIVE correlator.

Domaines: Autre

Maria Eugenia Gomez, Patrick Charlot, Robert Campbell, Mark Kettenis, Aard Keimpema. Geodesy at K-band with the European VLBI Network. Proceedings of the Journées 2019 "Astrometry, Earth Rotation, and Reference Systems in the GAIA era",, Oct 2019, Paris, France. ⟨hal-02955340⟩